Recommendations ahead on smoke-​​free campus initiative

John Auerbach, director of the Institute on Urban Health Research and Distinguished Professor of Practice in Bouvé’s Department of Health Sciences, talks during a town-hall meeting Tuesday night on the university's exploration of a campus-wide smoking policy. Auerbach is part of a 10-member committee charged with exploring the issue, soliciting feedback, and providing final recommendations that are expected later this semester. Photos by Brooks Canaday.

A com­mittee charged with exploring a smoke-​​free campus policy hosted a town-​​hall meeting Tuesday night to field ques­tions from the North­eastern com­mu­nity and pro­vide updates on issues that have yielded sig­nif­i­cant feed­back. The com­mittee is expected to make final rec­om­men­da­tions later this spring.

In December, the uni­ver­sity announced it had con­vened a com­mittee com­prised of stu­dents, fac­ulty, and staff to explore the pos­si­bility of imple­menting a smoke-​​free policy. The 10-​​member com­mittee is co-​​chaired by Terry Fulmer, dean of the Bouvé Col­lege of Health Sci­ences, and John Auer­bach, director of the Insti­tute on Urban Health Research and Dis­tin­guished Pro­fessor of Prac­tice in Bouvé’s Depart­ment of Health Sciences.

Tuesday’s open forum, held in West Vil­lage F, marked the second time this semester the com­mittee has held a public event to solicit feed­back. Sev­eral hun­dred com­ments have also been gath­ered through a ded­i­cated web­site and via email; the com­mittee is also seeking feed­back from the 1,100 cam­puses nation­wide that have already imple­mented some form of a smoke-​​free policy. The Fac­ulty Senate dis­cussed the topic at a meeting last month.

“One of the most impor­tant things we as a com­mittee wanted to do was to make this process very inclu­sive and trans­parent,” Auer­bach said.

The first forum fea­tured a range of opin­ions from the student-​​dominated audi­ence. Tuesday’s town-​​hall meeting pro­vided a sim­ilar oppor­tu­nity for ques­tions and com­ments, and the audi­ence also lis­tened to updates on two issues in par­tic­ular that have been fea­tured promi­nently in feed­back thus far: smoking ces­sa­tion resources on campus and adher­ence to a poten­tial smoke-​​free policy.

Coun­seling, nico­tine replace­ment therapy, and ces­sa­tion resources are also avail­able to benefits-​​eligible fac­ulty and staff through the Employee Assis­tance Pro­gram and their Blue Cross/​Blue Shield health­care plans, com­mittee mem­bers explained. Including smoking ces­sa­tion in the university’s upcoming Healthy You pro­gram­ming has also been discussed.

Health sci­ences major Leah Web­ster dis­cussed trends related to social media feed­back as part of the smoke-​​free campus ini­tia­tive. She is working on this project for her senior capstone.

Elia, for her part, has ana­lyzed compliance-​​based methods at sev­eral other col­leges and found that suc­cessful pro­grams gen­er­ally have four common com­po­nents: com­mu­ni­ca­tion, edu­ca­tion, sig­nage, and a pos­i­tive rein­force­ment model. She noted the Uni­ver­sity of Kentucky’s “Three-​​T” model—tell, treat, and train—which has uti­lized a mix of social media, scripted mes­sages on how to approach people about the policy, a research fair, and clever marketing.

During the public response period, stu­dent rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the Health Dis­par­i­ties Stu­dent Col­lab­o­ra­tive and the Res­i­dent Stu­dent Asso­ci­a­tion read state­ments in sup­port of a smoke-​​free policy. Sev­eral other stu­dents asked ques­tions on a range of topics; one asked about cur­rent smoking policy sig­nage across campus, and another asked which areas of campus are public ways and would be exempt from a poten­tial ban.

In closing remarks, Auer­bach said the com­mittee would con­tinue its dis­cus­sions over the next 30 days and then draft a report with final rec­om­men­da­tions on a poten­tial smoke-​​free campus policy, which is expected to be released later this semester. The North­eastern com­mu­nity can weigh in by vis­iting the smoke-​​free ini­tia­tive web­site, tweeting with #NUsmoke­free, posting com­ments to the initiative’s Face­book page, and by emailing smokefreeinitiative@​neu.​edu.

About the Writer

Greg St. Martin is the senior editor for news@Northeastern. He joined Northeastern in March 2010 after working at a Boston newspaper for six years. Outside the office, he enjoys playing basketball, basking in the glory of finding great parking spots, and listening to the comic genius of Steven Wright. Follow on Twitter: @gstmartinNU

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